Thin Ice
by Mya Latti
Summary: In which Chip is missing, Sonic isn't really himself at night and Tails is in way over his head. Misunderstandings can be harsh — Somewhat of an Unleashed adaption.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! So there seems to be a recent influx of Werehog stories, so I figured I'd get on the bandwagon and write one myself. Naw, I'm just kidding. I started writing this weeks ago when I (finally) completed Unleashed, but only really finished the chapter tonight. But anyway, it's sort of a re-write of Unleashed, and by sort of I mean completely different. Haha, not really. It's in-keeping with the same basic plot, but kind of deviates a little.

And I know the plot has been done to death, but I thought I'd just add my own little flair to it ;)

Okay, I'm just going to stop writing stuff now. I'm probably making it even more confusing. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sonic in any way, shape or form.

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**Thin Ice.**

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Tails jumped and grabbed a hold of the side of the Tornado before pulling himself up into the driver's seat, landing with a soft thud and bumping his knee on the steering wheel as he got there. He hissed at the sudden impact and rubbed the area for a moment, dang, he was going to have a bruise from that. Once recovered, he pushed himself around so his arms were where the pedals were and his feet were flailing around in the air. Groping around blindly, he managed to find what he had been searching for and jumped back down from the plane with his newly-acquired spanner in hand.

The most recent scuffle with Eggman on their way here had unfortunately left more than a few dents in the body of said plane, and they'd also come away with a really wonky left wing_. _Even someone who didn't know how to fly it would have known it wasn't safe, it _seriously _wasn't. So far he'd fixed most of it and had managed to straighten out the majority of the dents, and now all that was left was to screw in that final bolt on the wing. He stepped up onto his toes and tightened it, dusting his hands off when he was done.

Well, that had been fairly easy. Granted, he'd spent the past few hours trying to make it look as fine as possible, but you couldn't really rush something like that.

As soon as they'd landed here in Spagonia (which, for the record, had not been his finest descent, but he blamed the fact the wing was about to fall off), Sonic had run off, trying to find a temple of whatever it was he was supposed to do. He hadn't heard back from him yet, but that wasn't particularly worrying...Sonic did what Sonic wanted. What was more pressing though was all the repairing he'd had to do, and coming back to that topic, it had all gone well, if he did say so himself. And maybe, _just _maybe if daylight held out for a little longer he'd have time to re-paint it.

"Tails!" Or maybe not.

"Hey, Sonic!" He spun around to face his brother, accidentally dropping his spanner as he did so. It clattered to the ground, making them both jump at the loud noise. He felt his cheeks flush and looked up at Sonic embarrassedly, biting his lip. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," He replied. "I have no idea where this temple thing is, so I've made absolutely no progress," He sighed and kicked the ground. Tails couldn't help but feel bad at this, Sonic was doing so much for everyone, it must be annoying knowing that you hadn't really gotten much further.

"At least you know where not to look now," It was feeble; he knew that, but better than nothing. Sonic just nodded in response. "Hey, where's Chip?"

"He flew off ages ago, I think he was hungry," He laughed and instantly the mood lifted. "But speaking of, why don't we go grab something to eat?"

Tails contemplated the suggestion for a moment - he could go some food (he'd seen some of the restaurants earlier and they looked incredible!) but the Tornado _really _needed painting. He hadn't given it a proper do-over in about two years now and everything the plane went through was starting to take it's toll on it, the edges were all peeling off. Plus, it was starting to get dark now and it was harder to work at night. "It's getting a bit late, don't you think?"

Sonic stared at him and Tails could tell that he was going over something in his mind. He blinked slowly and then it was apparent it had clicked what it was as his shoulders slumped. He stood there for a moment longer, and then he was gone, dashing around a corner near where they'd been standing in a blur. Tails frowned, watching the space where he'd just been, trying to work out why the sudden departure. Had he said something wrong? It's not like he didn't want to spend time with his brother, and Sonic knew that, it was genuinely just gett- _oh._

He took off immediately, cursing at himself for how insensitive he'd sounded. Of course Sonic was going to think he meant people wouldn't want to see him, what else would he derive from that remark? _Stupid, stupid! _He broke into a faster jog, hoping (but knowing that it wasn't very likely) he'd catch up to him.

He'd run about two streets, glancing down all the alleyways (when they'd first gotten here, he'd thought all the paths like that were cool. Now, not so much) when his brother's familiar blue shape caught his eye. _Well, that hadn't been too hard_... Sonic was leaning with his forehead against the wall, his hands were shaking and he yelped in pain. It was all a rather scary sight, but the latter was the worst part, Sonic _never _complained about injury, even if he had been fighting giant robots or maniacal creatures and had come off worse for wear. It made Tails' heart pound like crazy, what was happening? Is this what his brother had to go through _every _morning and _every _evening? It looked so painful!

Sonic started banging his head against the wall, obviously trying to control the shaking, and Tails ran forward, arm outstretched - why he thought this would help was beyond him - as some sort of support. But he got two steps away when Sonic opened his eyes and yelled out to him.

"Tails!" And then standing in his place was...well, it was Sonic, but you know, that werehoggy him.

He shook his head, it had all been over just like that... Once the initial shock had worn off though, he was able to properly concentrate on what was in front of him - an angry, growling creature. Something wasn't right here...usually Sonic was the same when this happened, just a teensy bit more feral, but now he looked ready to attack anything that got in his way. Including him.

"Sonic?" He stuttered, taking a step backwards. _It's only Sonic, it's only Sonic! He wouldn't hurt you, you're his best friend! _But no matter how many times he repeated that in his head, his gut was telling him to get out of there, _fast. _He'd never behaved like this in that form before, why was he suddenly so aggressive? It was awful and he was ashamed when he looked back on it, but at this moment, he was actually scared. He'd never tell though, it would break Sonic's heart.

He was answered with a low growl and then an even louder one. If that wasn't a clear indication that something was very wrong, then he didn't know what was. But anyway, it was here that he took off, spinning his namesake around and racing back to the safety of the Tornado. He didn't look around or stop until he got to said plane, landing on the wing before collapsing into the driver's seat.

It took a few moments for him to catch his breath and then he peeked up over the door, checking out what was happening (it probably hadn't been a smart move to not be facing the action) and much to his relief, he wasn't being pursued. Straight away he scolded himself for the thought; Sonic was his best friend, not some monster! But what he was seeing right now might not be the best way to prove that, as he was running into town on all fours...like a real wolf.

Wait. That wasn't good.

Without really thinking, he jumped up once more and _this _time chased his brother. He was a fair way behind him, but found one of those back paths and managed to cut Sonic off, stopping right in front of him with his arms outstretched. Sonic growled, baring his teeth at him and taking a step forward. Tails swallowed hard, trying to ignore the rising panic - dark gaia was such an awful thing! He couldn't really stop the fear though, because even though this _was _Sonic, at the same time...it wasn't.

"Sonic!" He hoped that hearing his name would somehow snap him out of it and bring him back to his senses (or rather, he just didn't know what else to say), but unfortunately it didn't seem to and Sonic just took another step forward. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his arm move, and then suddenly all he felt was pain. It took him by surprise and he gasped, stumbling back a little. It took him half a minute or so to realise what had happened, and when he did, he looked down to try and find what _was_ hurting and found three deep gashes on his stomach, and then looked back up to find Sonic gone.

* * *

After bandaging up his torso, Tails had drifted under the Tornado all night, willing it to be morning. It seemed to take forever (as things tend to do when you're waiting for them), but eventually it started to light up. _Thank God! _He blinked a few times, adjusting his eyes to the sudden brightness and then pushed himself to standing. Ouch, he still wasn't used to that stinging.

"Hey, Tails!" The familiar voice made him break into a grin - after last night he'd never been happier to see his brother. Said hedgehog skidded to a halt just in front of him, and while he was smiling at first, his expression soon turned to a frown upon noticing the bandages. "Oh man, what happened, little buddy?"

He gaped in surprise, was this for serious? "You don't remember?" Sonic shook his head. "You happened, Sonic! Last night you were totally savage and when I stood in front of you, you swiped at me!" And then not for the first time, Tails regretted speaking. He would have had to tell him eventually, but he should have at least said it a little less harshly. But he'd just been so surprised that he hadn't recalled any of it that it had just come out, really!

"I'm sorry," He mumbled. "I didn't mean to," His shoulders slumped and soon the rest of him followed, taking a seat underneath the wing - not far from where Tails had been napping. He watched the ground seemingly deep in thought for what felt like forever, but in reality was really only a minute or so. Eventually he looked back up at him with a grin (which was so obviously forced, in any other situation it would have been kind of comical). "If you're pulling my leg, I'm going to be mighty mad,"

Tails felt like crying, he wanted nothing more than to be able to tell Sonic that everything was okay and he was indeed joking, but he couldn't - _wouldn't _lie like that. So he just shook his head and slid down so he was sitting next to him. They were silent as he tried to think of something to say that would reassure him, he wanted to make him feel better but they couldn't exactly dismiss what had happened either. He had been dangerous, through no fault of his own, and they had to work out why.

The silence continued until Sonic suddenly kicked the ground, making Tails jump. "I hate this! I'd never hurt anyone and now apparently I can't even control it!" Upon seeing his brother's surprise at the sudden outburst he added, "I'm so sorry, those gashes aren't too deep, are they?"

"They're okay," He said, shrugging slightly. To be honest, he was _really _distracted as he as trying to figure out why the sudden change. Dark gaia was known for changing people's personalities at night time, but on so far on Sonic it had only changed his appearance. But yesterday...something had been altered, perhaps he'd absorbed more dark gaia? Though that didn't seem very likely, they had to figure out what it was, lest they want a repeat of the night before.

He yawned, suddenly feeling really tired. He'd only managed two hours of sleep tops last night, and even then he had been waking up all the time keeping an eye out for Sonic. It wasn't particularly easy to sleep when a dangerous creature was running around the town, especially one that had already hurt you. Plus, when he got hung up on thinking about huge situations, it exhausted him. Probably not a good thing, but whatever.

"Are you tired, buddy?" He nodded and in response, Sonic shifted closer to him and placed his arm around his shoulders. "Here," Tails yawned again and placed his head against his brother's side, closing his eyes as he did so. It was kind of funny in a terrible sort of way - last night he'd been so scared of Sonic's transformation, and now here he was.

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_So, there we go! In case you're wondering, Sonic isn't going to turn into some merciless killing machine...I could never write something like that. He's just like an animal, an aggressive one, hahaha. And why he's behaving like that will all be revealed, or maybe you've already guessed? Nonetheless, I hope it was okay!_

_And originally I was going to call this Hurricane, but then I remembered the plane was called the Tornado, haha.  
_


	2. Chapter 2

Hey, thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it, it means a lot! :D

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**2.**

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Tails opened his eyes, and then immediately shut them again, it was _way _too bright and he was not nearly awake enough to deal with it. He sat there for a moment longer, allowing himself to sort of adjust to not being asleep anymore before he tried to open them again. This time it was a little more successful and the sunlight didn't surprise him as much, but he still sat there, wondering just exactly where he was. Spagonia, right? They'd visited so many cities recently that it was hard to keep track, especially when something massive happened like it had last night.

Ah yeah, there was that too.

Right, that's why he was here. He'd fallen asleep next to Sonic, who remarkably was still sitting next to him. Sonic _never _sat still unless he was deep in thought or something was worrying him, and considering he'd probably been out for about three hours, he had to be really, really concerned about the situation. Understandably so, of course. And then that brought back that troubling thought - what had happened? They seriously did have to figure it out.

"Morning sleepy," He announced, no hint of said worry in his voice at all. "Or rather, afternoon. It's about twelve,"

"Hey Sonic," He grinned back. "Thanks for sitting with me,"

He flashed him a thumbs up, "No worries! But since you're awake, I'm going to go look for that temple thing now. If you see Chip, tell him that's where I am," He stretched his arms out before standing up and walking around, presumably to get the feeling back in his legs. "And I'll be back before sunset," They had adopted that phrase while they'd been travelling recently, and so far Sonic had always stuck to it. He came back to check on Tails and explore wherever they were at night. Today though, he backtracked slightly after saying it. Well, more than slightly. "Actually, it's probably better that I'm not. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow morning instead,"

And then he was gone in flash, leaving Tails standing there by himself. He watched the space where he'd been for a minute or so, and then turned back to face the Tornado. Now he had half a day left to do whatever, and since he'd done all the repairs yesterday, it seemed painting was the way to go. Plus, it was also mind-numblingly boring, so it would give him time to think and hopefully come up with a reason and solution for the previous night.

He jumped and hoisted himself up into the plane and grabbed the paint from under his seat (he kept everything there, but it wasn't the best spot because sometimes the items would slide out when they were flying and hit the pedals). It wasn't that he brought paint with him wherever he went, but his intentions yesterday had _actually _been to finish the repairs and extra coat. Unfortunately they'd taken a little longer than he'd hoped, and no, it was not because he'd spent a good two hours hunting out a store that stocked paint. But whatever, it gave him something to do today.

_You're travelling the world, yet all you can think to do is paint your plane. Oh Tails, you are so much fun._

He stood up and stepped out onto the wing, almost toppling over as he made his way towards the edge. How Sonic freaking did this when they were _flying _was beyond him, it was hard enough to balance when it _wasn't _moving! He knelt down and clutched the side with one hand and awkwardly tried to lift the lid of the tin off and dip his brush into it with the other. He managed (somehow) and got to work, starting with the very end of the wing, obviously.

Almost straight away, his mind drifted to last night - something had been very wrong. But what had caused it, and more importantly, how could they fix it? A small part of him hoped that it had just been a strange occurence and that everything would be back to normal tonight, but he knew that it wasn't very likely and they couldn't really afford to take that risk anyway. It wasn't even their first time in Spagonia recently, and it had never happened here before, so that couldn't have anything to do with it. Maybe someone had opened a Dark Gaia vent or something (he didn't know if they existed, but he was just grasping onto anything here), it was a pretty big place after all. It was feasible, so he made a mental note to research it later on.

Besides that though, he was drawing blanks. None of his other reasons made any sense and were even less likely than the first one. He dug his fingers where he was holding into the side of the wing in frustration, why did this have to happen? It was so unfair, mostly on Sonic of course, but him too (he was worried sick!) and all the citizens of Spagonia. Stupid Eggman, what had he been thinking?

He shifted to the other side, but unfortunately was too deep in thought to notice what he was doing and realise that he'd moved over too far. His leg slipped and as he topplied off, made a grab for something to save him and ended up pulling the tin of _red _paint down too. He landed with a thud, and while he wasn't hurt, it certainly looked like he was. The paint has splattered all over him, making the bandages around his stomach seem like they were protecting something very painful indeed.

It was an entertaining situation, Tails would admit that, but right now he really wasn't in the mood for it. He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest - usually he was a pretty patient person (he actually liked to pride himself on that fact) but today was seriously starting to test that. And now not only had he fallen off his plane, he was out of paint too. He stood back up, taking a deep breath. There really wasn't any reason to just sit around moping about it, he might as well go source out another tin. With his luck though, the store he bought it from yesterday would have sold out.

He started down towards Spagonia, the store was right in the middle and he stupidly had parked the Tornado right on the outskirts. Hey, it had seemed like a good idea at the time! As he wandered through the streets, he couldn't help but notice that the city looked kind of...messy. Some windows were smashed, tables and chairs were knocked over and a lamp post was dented. Some of the people were cleaning up and Tails overheard a conversation about them wondering what had happened.

He wondered along with them briefly and then grinned sheepishly (which was not at all appropriate as the situation was terrible, he was just embarrassed that he hadn't made the connection considering it was all he had been thinking about) when he had the realisation. It soon faded away though and he could feel that familiar panic starting to rise again - he'd known things were bad, but now he was really seeing it and that just made it all the more worse.

"Hey, Tails!" He spun around upon hearing his name and saw Amy in the distance (he and Sonic had previously had a conversation about _why _she was in Spagonia at the same time as them, and they couldn't exactly work it out) waving and making her way towards him. "What's the matter? You look like you've just seen a ghost,"

"It's just this," He nodded towards a broken fence.

She sighed and Tails knew she was the right person to talk to. Amy may have been a little crazy and scary occasionally, but she was really quite an understanding person. "I know, it looks like a tornado blew through here or something," He thought about Sonic at this point, where was he now? Was he trying to find the temple or working out what had happened too? The poor guy, he was the last person in the world that this should have happened to, and as if he didn't have enough pressure on him already. "Oh my God, what happened?"

She took him by surprise and he looked around frantically to find what she was talking about. Was it the whole ruined town thing? Surely she couldn't have just noticed that, they'd just been talking about it! "What?"

"Those bandages! There's so much blood!"

Oh! He began to laugh (for the first time in a while too) and ended up doubled over, with his arms wrapped around his where said bandages were. He straightened back up, taking a deep breath to try and stop himself from bursting back into laughter. Amy just gave him an odd look, very much confused. "It's paint,"

And then she breathed the biggest sigh of relief he'd thought he'd ever heard and placed her hand on her chest. "Tails! You had me so worried!"

He just shrugged in response, grinning slightly. Now that the conversation was so light-hearted, he thought it would be a good time to tell her about Sonic and what was going on there. She'd be a good person to help, and he kind of wanted to talk to someone about it, it was a lot to deal with on your own. How could he word it though? He didn't want to really worry her or for her to go off looking for him right now, but it was important to let her know. Especially if she were to run into him at night time. But as he went to talk -

"Hey, have you seen Chip? I know he's usually with Sonic, but I saw this sweets shop and that I think he'd like,"

The realisation hit him like a tonne of bricks and he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it earlier. Chip! That's what had been different last night, he hadn't been with Sonic! But why would Chip change all that? Actually, maybe it was that necklace that he wore that activated the pillar things for the Chaos Emeralds in the temples. It must counteract Dark Gaia, or do something like that at least. And that is exactly why Sonic had changed last night, because Chip hadn't been around. It all suddenly made so much sense.

"Thank you, Amy!" He exclaimed, giving her a huge smile and then turning and running back to where he'd come from. Painting the plane didn't matter so much anymore, he'd worked it out!

But now this begged the question - where _was _Chip?


	3. Chapter 3

What's with my short chapters? I used to write really long ones, but they've kinda decreased now. Ah well! Also, thank you so much for the awesome reviews! I really appreciate them, seriously :)

I know Chip didn't really affect Sonic in the actual game, but I'm basing this off a different theory that he actually did, haha. So that's why it's not exactly a re-write of Unleashed. I came across it in a youtube comment and I thought it was a really neat idea, so here we go! I won't say what it was exactly, but those who have played the game can probably figure it out, haha. Also, I hope Tails isn't too whiny. I just wanted it to seem like it was a lot for him to deal with, only being eight and all.

Anyway, enjoy!

_Edit: re-uploaded because I fixed up some stuff, so sorry if your inboxes were spammed!_

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**3.**

Tails slammed the book shut, releasing a cloud of dust that had been trapped inside right into his face and subsequently had a coughing fit. After recovering from that, he took a deep breath (which wasn't clever as he got another mouthful of it and almost started up again) and pushed the book away. Well, that had one had been completely useless. It seemed that the Spagonian University library held very little information on Dark Gaia, and in fact only two of the books mentioned it. Even then it was just a paragraph or so and was not very detailed at all.

But the few hours he'd spent in here had not been wasted, as the paragraphs had said that Dark Gaia could be balanced out by Light Gaia. It wasn't at all surprising and if he'd thought hard enough about it, he could have figured it out himself. Yet for some reason the thought hadn't crossed his mind - but whatever, he knew now and it was good to have proper information about it too (however sparse it may be), not just his own theories. Though now the situation was even more confusing, because what did Light Gaia have to do with Chip? Was it sealed in that bauble on his necklace? But why?

Speaking of Chip, he probably should have been out looking for him. But he figured that Sonic wasn't coming back until tomorrow morning and even if he did manage to find Chip now, that it wouldn't even be that much help because Sonic wouldn't be around. His plans were a little more logical than his brother's anyway, he wanted to know what they were dealing with and the best way to approach it before running headlong into whatever it was. He did have the intention of going out to find him after he finished in the library though, and since he'd been through most of the books with even the slightest bit of relevance, he stood up and headed towards the exit.

Once out of the library (he was glad to have left, the place had been really stuffy and the librarian had been giving him evils for not being a student) Tails stood at the top of the stairwell, looking out over Spagonia. He could see all of the city from here and it was handy because it gave him a chance to work out where exactly he was going to go looking. He lifted his arm up and drew a line through the air with his finger, starting at the bottom of the stairs and extending out right to where most of the restaurants were. He figured they'd be the best places to check out, but honestly, Chip could be anywhere. He then moved his finger to the upper left side of the city, he'd look there next.

He swallowed hard and took a step down, suddenly nervous. The city was just so _massive, _it would take him hours just to explore one area, especially if he had to look in every building and alleyway! The task was definitely daunting (and he'd admit that that was part of the reason why he went to the library first), but he'd have to get started sooner or later. Plus, it was getting late in the day now and it would be much harder to look around when it was dark. Why couldn't Sonic be here? It would make the situation a whole less scary and they'd probably get it done twice as fast too.

But Sonic being there wouldn't really work at this time of day, would it?

He finally got to the bottom of the steps and readied himself for the task ahead. Who knows how long it would take? It was important though and he had to get started as soon as possible, no matter how intimidated he was by it. _You can do it, I know you can! _He tried to build himself up, but it didn't do much good. It _was _a difficult and huge task, and Sonic was pretty much depending on him now, even if he didn't know it. Alright, he wasn't really prepared, but he'd start anyway.

"Tails!"

Cool.

"Hey Amy,"

"Where've you been? I've been looking for you for hours after you ran off earlier," She placed her hands on her hips, giving him a look of _that's not on. _But he didn't care because now he had another plan (at first he'd thought she'd just delay what he was going to do, but not anymore), one he'd thought up when she'd said _looking _- she could help him find Chip! It would take half the amount of time and two people were always better than one.

"Sorry," He replied, a little embarrassed. He had kind of just left before, hadn't he? Whoops, he hadn't really thought about that. "But I'll explain later because right now I need your help," She nodded eagerly so he continued. "We need to find Chip, so can you check every building and street over on the west side?" He raised his hand and pointed to where he had planned to look after the restaurants.

"Of course!" She clapped her hands together and grinned. "But why? What's going on?"

"I'll tell you afterwards, we need to hurry now," He glanced nervously at the setting sun, Sonic suddenly springing to mind. Where was he now and was he frightened too? He looked back to Amy and saw her rather unhappy expression at his response. "Really, I promise," He reassured and she smiled again. "Now let's go, I'll meet you back here at eight,"

* * *

Tails sighed, stopping to lean against a wall and re-appraise the situation. He'd been searching up and down and in every corner of every street (just like he'd planned), but there was absolutely no sign of Chip. He'd even taken a photo of him to show people and ask if they'd seen him, but no one had. It was really frustrating and he'd had one or two moments where it just seemed impossible, _but _he'd continue. Chip wouldn't have just disappeared into thin air, he had to be somewhere! It was just a matter of where that somewhere was. Plus, Sonic needed his help and that alone was a major driving force. They could find him, they just had to keep looking.

Not tonight though, because it was now eight and he had to go meet Amy. Plus, the darker it got, the harder it was to look. Especially down all those small alleyways, they didn't have street lights and were pretty much pitch black (and kind of freaky). So he pushed himself up from the wall and headed back towards the university. He continued to look as he made his way there though, Chip could have moved to here while he was over the other side of town (and that was another issue entirely).

"Any luck?" He called as he reached Amy who was sitting on the stairs, looking kind of bored. How long had she been waiting for?

She shook her head. "No sign of him at all. But since you're back here now, can you tell me what's going on?"

He took a seat next to her, nodding. It had been so hectic and downright confusing that most of it had seemed pretty surreal, and he wondered if saying it all out loud would sound...odd. Was that the word? But not like, _you're weird _odd, but _are you sure that can even happen? _odd. No, odd definitely wasn't what he was looking for. "To be honest," He began. "I have no idea,"

Unbelievable, that's it! Yeah, he wondered if Amy would even believe what he was saying...

"Well, that's just great, isn't it?" She punched his arm playfully and he rubbed it in mock-pain, grinning slightly.

"Actually, I _know _what's happening, but it's just really confusing," She looked at him expectantly, so he continued in one big jumbled spiel. "You know how Eggman messed around with the Chaos Emeralds and put all that Dark Gaia in Sonic, and how that turns him into that werehog thing at night? Well, Dark Gaia usually messes with people's personalities and stuff, and Light Gaia can balance it out. But it turns out Chip was the reason why Sonic stayed exactly the same," He took a deep breath, "Because yesterday Chip wasn't around and at night time Sonic was just like an animal - which is why I have these bandages on, I got in his way - and in the morning he couldn't remember any of what had happened. So I worked out that Chip somehow balanced the Dark Gaia in him, but I'm not sure why. My guess is the little bauble thing around his neck, but why would that have Light Gaia in it? And sorry, I've just made no sense,"

Wow, that really did sound unbelievable.

"No, I understood you," Amy replied quietly. "So it is kind of important we find Chip,"

"Yeah, it is,"

"Okay!" She looked back up at him, suddenly appearing really determined. "I would say we continue looking now, but I'm tired and you're probably tired too _and _it's really dark. So let's meet up here first thing tomorrow morning and we'll keep going then!" He grinned and nodded, thank goodness she believed him! Honestly though, he didn't know why he thought she wouldn't, they'd been through enough crazy stuff together that she'd probably believe anything. It just sounded really farfetched this time, is all.

But it was really good to have it off his chest, he hadn't realised how stressed he'd been trying to figure it out by himself. At least now someone else knew what was going on and they could talk about it and work it out together. He had Sonic of course, but it was good to have someone else who was _always_ there too. Plus three people were better than two, and as he'd said earlier, two people were better than one. So maybe, _just _maybe, the task wouldn't be quite as difficult as he'd originally thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys, thanks for being so patient with me! I had _no _idea what to write in this chapter at first, so it took me a while to get into the groove. And thank you all again _so much _for the reviews, I appreciate each and every one, even if I haven't PM'd you about it. Also, a big shout out to the reviewer who called my writing style "informative and enjoyable", I've never had someone comment on my style before and it means a lot to me, so thank you!

And hopefully this chapter is interesting enough, there's a lot of explaining going in in it, haha.

But here we go, enjoy my excessive use of brackets!

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**4.**

* * *

Tails sat underneath the Tornado, legs pulled up to his chest to try and keep himself warm. It was almost winter here, and the mornings were a lot colder than he was used to. He shivered slightly and then looked out into the city to try and take his mind off the weather. It was really early, but he'd already been up for at least an hour now. He'd spent the night tossing and turning _again _and eventually had just given up on trying to get some decent sleep (and no, it was nothing to do with the fact he'd forgotten to find somewhere to stay and had had to sleep in the cockpit). Plus, he was just really worried about Sonic and that had definitely not helped the matter at all. He'd been feeling positive last night and that hadn't changed...but it was still scary.

But back to distracting himself, the stores were just opening and the he could see the cafe just down the road was starting to put out their chairs. The waiter waved to him awkwardly when he noticed he was being watched and Tails just smiled back, kind of embarrassed. He mentally apologised to the guy though, he'd just sort of been staring into the distance without realising what he was doing. He turned slightly to see what else was happening and noticed some other people were trying to repair that fence and that there was a blue blur heading straight towards him. If it had been anything else moving that speed, he would have jumped out of the way and hoped for dear life that it didn't hit him. But he knew Sonic would stop, so he didn't have to do all that.

And fortunately he did, but he also stumbled slightly, which was very unlike him.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, buddy," It was here that Tails noticed just how tired Sonic looked, understandably so of course, he'd hardly had a break! But this was more than what he usually was after their adventures, no wonder he'd almost fallen over when he'd stopped. Did the werehog not _sleep?_

"So, how'd it go last night?"

He didn't reply straight away and instead opted to take a seat next to Tails. He still didn't answer though, and usually Tails would assume that he'd not been heard or was being ignored. He guessed the former, because Sonic did listen to him most of the time, and he _was _really tired. So he'd give him another minute or so before repeating himself, and while he waited, he inspected the paint job he'd given the plane. Well, you couldn't really call it that because he'd hardly done anything, but at least one of the wings looked really good.

"It kind of feels like I'm asleep," There you go, he _had_ heard him.

What did that have to do with it though? Not that he minded, it just didn't really relate to his question. "Right now?"

"No, silly," It was said really humourlessly and that sort of unsettled Tails. He _always _joked around, so this must have been taking a bigger toll on him than he'd thought. Though not knowing where you go at night and the very real possibility of hurting someone would tear up most people, so yeah, it was totally justified. "At night, as soon as the sun sets it's just like I'm asleep, but obviously I'm not. Kind of confusing, right?"

"A little," He laughed (and then hoped he hadn't offended his brother). "But you'll be happy because I figured out why,"

"Oh yeah?" He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight. It didn't do much good though and he ended up having to squint anyway. "Lay it on me, buddy,"

"Chip!" He answered proudly - he'd been wanting to tell Sonic since he'd worked it out as he was rather happy with himself. And maybe Sonic would have more of an idea to where said variance was, that would make their job _so _much easier. But you know, then there was the whole putting the planet back together and stopping Eggman on top of that. Awesome.

"He hasn't been around, has he?" Sonic replied, giving up with the squinting and instead closed his eyes and rested his cheek in his palm. He was quiet for a moment, and then yawned before continuing. "But why would he have anything to do with the Dark Gaia suddenly messing up?"

"No idea, but my guess is he has some form of Light Gaia with him because that balances out the Dark," _But what was it?_

"Maybe in that bauble around his neck? It always seems to brighten up and stuff when we get into the temples," He shrugged his shoulders but kept his eyes closed. "I guess we'll just have to find him then,"

Well, what did he think he'd been doing the whole time? "We do! Amy's going to help - Sonic?" Something seemed a little different about his brother than it had been a few moments ago. He was sitting a lot stiller than he'd previously been and there was no response to when he'd said _Amy _or called his name_, _so Tails proceeded to wave a hand in front of his face. He waited momentarily to see if there was a response, but there wasn't. He _knew _he'd been tired! And Sonic didn't just fall asleep mid-conversation unless he was seriously exhausted. Poor guy! He didn't like to admit it often though, which was both a good and a bad thing. Good in the aspect he wouldn't slow down and always got things done, but bad because he _wouldn't _slow down. "Sonic!" He placed a hand on his shoulder and nudged him. He felt a little bad and usually he would have let him sleep, but he _needed _his help right now.

"Huh?" He jumped, eyes springing open. "What's up?"

You know, he'd never really thought about it before, but Sonic probably didn't get to rest a whole lot on their adventures. He just kept running and didn't stop until it was all done, but surely he got tired from that? Everyone needed some down time once in a while. Especially now, who knew what the werehog did at night? But if he was anything like Sonic (and from what he'd seen the night before last), he probably ran around a whole lot. And then that brought about another question, where did Sonic go at sunset last night anyway? He didn't think he would have stayed anywhere close to town, so he made a mental note to ask him later.

"Tails!" A familiar voice broke into his thoughts. "And Sonic too! This is great! Well, it's not actually because it's a pretty dire situation, but you know what I mean,"

Sonic's eyes widened (quite the opposite of what they were doing before) and even though he didn't speak, Tails knew he was asking _'what's she doing here?', _he just rolled his eyes in response. "Amy helped me look for Chip last night," He explained. "So she's going to look today too," Sonic nodded slowly and Tails couldn't tell whether he was pleased or not. "Do you have any idea where he could be?"

"He said he was going to get something to eat, so I would suggest check all the places you can buy food, but that was two days ago,"

He sighed, _two days. _What could Chip have been doing for that long? Usually he followed Sonic around like a shadow, and then to suddenly disappear...it was all a bit odd if he really thought about it (which he was). What if something had happened? Maybe Eggman had caught him and was planning on using him as like, a lure for Sonic or something. That definitely seemed like something the Doctor would do. He swallowed hard, pushing the idea away. It probably hadn't happened, Chip was perfectly capable of looking after himself.

"I've already looked in most of them," He said. "But I'll keep searching in that direction," He nodded over to his right. "Amy can look over there, and Sonic, can you look everywhere behind us? We'll meet back here in a few hours," He stood up, stretched his legs and headed off to where he'd finished yesterday. The city was bustling now, people were everywhere (more so than usual too, maybe there was an event on or something) and it was a fair bit harder to navigate than last night. As if he wasn't feeling overwhelmed enough...

* * *

Tails approached the Tornado, frowning and shaking his head. Amy did the same and Tails felt his stomach sink, even with all of them they had still made no progress! Seriously, where had Chip gone? Eggman popped into his head again and he tried to ignore it - he hadn't been in Spagonia for weeks now. But still, the idea was there, always just kind of floating around.

Sonic (who had been staring off into the distance) suddenly turned to look at Tails, as if he'd only just realised he was there. "I didn't find him either,"

And at this point Tails decided Sonic _would not _continue looking today. He was so tired that it really wasn't fair to add all the extra work (plus, him and Amy were doing a fine job anyway), so he should just go lie down or something. It was very unlikely that Sonic would do that on his own accord though, and still pretty unlikely that he'd do it on someone's insistence, but he could at least make him sit for a while. So he grabbed his arm and walked with him over to the steps. Once there, he pointed to them and Sonic sat down, raising a non-existent eyebrow.

"Stay there," He commanded, chuckling slightly at both his brother's _and _Amy's confusion. "We're going to keep looking for Chip, but I want you to sit or lie or whatever there, okay?"

"Hey, that's no fair, bro," He protested, and when he tried to stand back up, Tails pushed him down again. This happened more than once, Sonic apparently really didn't want to be confined to one spot for a short amount of time. It was probably a little harsh that he was forcing it upon him though if he didn't want to, but he seriously needed to rest. It was for his own good, and Tails' peace of mind too. It upset him a bit seeing his brother so exhausted, it was out of character (plus, sometimes he drove him up the wall when he was tired) and he wanted to fix that.

"But you're really tired, I don't want you to wear yourself out too much," He explained, and this time Sonic didn't try and get up again. He just smiled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm going to be so bored, but I suppose if that's what you really want, then I guess I'll just sit here," He yawned and Tails laughed, _case in point. _"Okay fine, maybe I am a _little _tired," He nodded, Sonic had known it all along, he'd just not wanted to admit it. He turned back to Amy and they nodded at one another before heading off in their respective directions to keep looking around, leaving behind a complaining Sonic who was calling out about how dull it was already.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Tails really didn't have that many more places to search - two more streets (but one of them was really long) to be exact. If it was any other situation though, he would have been happy because the task was almost done, but in this case he just felt desperate. If Chip wasn't anywhere in the city, then where was he? To be honest, it _was _a pretty weak plan to begin with as people generally don't stay idle for two days straight, but what else was there to do?

He walked past a store but stopped before he got completely past it, something about it seemed familiar but he couldn't work out what exactly. He stared at it, trying to figure it out. He'd definitely seen those paint swatches before... _Paint...swatches...the Tornado..._That's it! Paint! It's where he'd gotten the paint for the Tornado (the revelation wasn't at all interesting, and he was sort of disappointed that he hadn't seen Chip there or something)! Considering his options, he continued to stare at it - he could not go in and gain absolutely nothing, or he _could _go in, buy some more paint (one never knew when the opportunity to paint a plane would arise, after all) and also ask the own if they'd seen Chip. That's something he had taken to today, checking with everyone. No one had seen him thus far, but there was still a chance.

So he ducked inside and emerged a minute or so later carrying a new tin. Unfortunately the owner hadn't seen Chip, but hey, at least he'd tried. Lugging the tin across the road, he wandered into the cafe opposite the store. This street (the really long one) was pretty cool and he particularly liked this place. He'd eaten here with Sonic a few days ago and the food had been really nice. He wasn't sure why he hadn't checked here yet actually, it was one of the better places in the city after all.

He walked through it, checking all the booths and tables for Chip, but there was nothing. Frowning, he made his way up to the counter to ask the people working. One boy recognised him and waved slightly, coming over to where he was standing.

"Hey, I saw you here the other day!" He said, really enthusiastically. When he saw the unhappy expression on Tails' face though, his tone changed a fair bit. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong with _me,_" He thumbed himself in the chest. "But I'm just wondering if you've seen a guy called Chip around? He's about this tall," He held his hand half a metre off the counter. "And has a green bauble around his neck, he's got wings too and I'm pretty sure he's burgundy coloured," The guy seemed to be thinking about it and Tails reading himself for the inevitable _'no, sorry'_, as it was starting to seem that _no one _in Spagonia even knew who Chip was.

"Yeah, I totally have! He was in here two days ago with this guy holding a Chao puppet, I think he said he was going to visit Apotos or something," Tails felt like he was going to pass out with excitement, he'd just been totally wrong, Chip _had _been around! He jumped up from the seat he'd taken mid-conversation and bolted for the door. Things had just changed so suddenly and now they actually did have hope for the whole situation! He pushed himself faster, taking off into the air as soon as he'd exited the building, still lugging along the paint tin. _This was the best thing ever!_

He landed back down on the ground when he noticed the Tornado in the distance and sprinted towards it, waving his arms in the air frantically. "Amy! Sonic!" He came to a halt once he'd gotten there, placing his hands on his knees and inhaling deeply, trying to catch his breath. He'd run quite a distance...not exactly at Sonic speed, but at Tails speed. This was urgent news, he reasoned, and he had to get there as quickly as he possibly could.

"Shh," Amy hissed, placing a finger on her lips and nodding behind her towards the steps. He looked up to where she'd directed and a smile crept over his features - Sonic was laying on his side, fast asleep. _Ha, so much for sitting there bored. _It made him happy though, that amidst all the chaos that they regularly went through, Sonic was able to get some sort of a break. Heaven knows he was due one. And while if they left now they could probably make it to Apotos before night...he didn't want to wake him. It wouldn't be fair at all, and (hopefully) Chip would still be there tomorrow.

So he took a seat next to his brother, still smiling. It was difficult to believe that in just a few hours he wouldn't be like this anymore, but instead he'd be some sort of aggressive creature thing. He'd have to wake up before then, _but for now _that and Apotos could wait because even those who didn't like to slow down deserved a break once in a while.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey hey hey! How've you guys been? Anyway, sorry this chapter isn't too exciting, hopefully things get a bit more interesting next chapter, I have some stuff in mind.

**Also, **I'm gathering a lot of you have played Unleashed, but if you haven't, **Wentos **is an incredibly shy travelling salesman that carries around a Chao puppet that he uses to speak sometimes. Sonic runs into him in various locations, so yeah.

* * *

**5.**

* * *

Tails glanced back, unaccustomed to seeing someone in the back seat of the plane. It hardly ever got used as Sonic, for some reason he couldn't quite figure out, always thought it was a good idea to catch a ride on top of the wings instead. No matter how many times he told him it was unsafe though, he always replied with _'I'll be fine, it's more fun up here anyway,' _Tails didn't mention that you couldn't exactly stop yourself falling off or anything, but he hadn't thus far, so it was all good. He'd admit that it still made him nervous, but it was difficult to deter Sonic from things so most of the time he just went along with it.

But this time it _still _wasn't Sonic in the backseat being careful, no, of course not. It was Amy instead, and she looked kind of nervous. She'd been a little reluctant when he'd mentioned what the waiter had told him, which he'd thought was strange because she was just as committed as he was to finding Chip, but now he could see why. Apparently she didn't like flying at all, but at least Apotos was only a few hours away. That was actually really good though, not just for her, but the whole situation. If Chip had decided to go and waltz over to the _other _side of the world, the trip would have been a lot longer and they would have had to find somewhere to stop at night. So yeah, at least he'd picked somewhere convenient.

"Are you okay?" He asked, bringing himself back into the present situation. He was so used to flying himself that he didn't often think about what it would be like for other people, especially in an open plane with no seat belts (he'd been meaning to put some in, but as mentioned before, the back seat didn't get used very often and he didn't really care about his own).

"I'm fine," She replied, waving away his concern. "I'm just not used to flying in a plane that has no windows or anything,"

"Don't you trust Tails, Ames?" Sonic, who had been rather absent from the flight thus far, decided at this point to make an appearance and hung his head over the side of the wing.

"No, no, I do! It's just what I said before, hones-"

"I'm just teasing," He laughed and she rolled her eyes in response. "We _are _up pretty high after all, and riding on the wings isn't for everyone,"

"It shouldn't be for anyone," Tails muttered under his breath. "But you'll be okay, Amy. If Sonic can do that with nothing happening to him, then we're really safe,"

His brother nodded. "Yeah, plus Tails is an awesome pilot,"

He couldn't help smiling at this, Sonic _had _been the one to teach him in the beginning. When they'd first met, he'd had absolutely no idea how to even turn the engine on, but Sonic had seen he was interested and had given him a quick walkthrough. And yeah, here they were today. He did wonder what Sonic was like when he piloted though, he'd only ever travelled with him flying once or twice, but that was years ago and he couldn't really remember it. He was probably fairly decent considering he _had_ owned his own plane, it just didn't really seem like it was his thing though.

But on a totally unrelated note, it was early morning and they'd been flying for about an hour now. They were a third of the way into their journey and Tails could _not _wait to get there. He'd spent the previous night in Spagonia because by the time Sonic had woken up there hadn't been enough time to fly to Apotos (Sonic had told him he should have gotten him up and they could have gone, but Tails had stuck by his decision. Sleep was just as important) before nightfall, and the sun setting while they were up in the air would not have been a good thing.

He'd felt really bad watching Sonic run off just before evening last night, he obviously really didn't want to go. Fair enough too, it wasn't nice that he had to be alone when something so scary was happening, but there wasn't really any other option. Of course, this just made them even more determined to get to Apotos as quickly as possible.

* * *

"We're going to land soon," Tails shouted, trying to be heard above the wind. It had picked up rather suddenly the nearer they got to Apotos which was kind of annoying, it would be even harder to search if the weather was bad. And if it rained, Sonic probably wouldn't want to be outside. Oh well, he could only hope that Chip was really easy to find and that the weather would hold out. He saw Sonic's hand reach over the wing to give him a thumbs up, so he started to steer downwards. It had been about half a minute before that all too familiar thought popped into his head, dang, he thought he'd forgotten about that. "What if Eggman has Chip?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Amy's face fall, apparently she hadn't thought of it.

"That waiter said he'd followed that Wentos guy here though," She replied. They were silent after that, but Tails could tell that they were considering it. Plus, he'd be lying if he said he hadn't wondered if Wentos was with Eggman, that did seem pretty farfetched had continually tried to convince himself that the original thought was ridiculous and of course it wouldn't be what had happened, but he couldn't help it. The thought was there and now that he'd told the other two, it was even worse. If they couldn't find Chip in Apotos, there really wasn't any other place where he could be. Oh how he hoped that it wasn't true though.

The Tornado hit the ground with a thud, making Amy jump and grab hold of Tails' shoulders in surprise. He laughed quietly and brought the plane to a complete halt, they'd landed outside of town but right next to two houses, some people weren't going to be too happy about that. Ah well, they didn't plan on spending very long in Apotos anyway, so maybe the people in the houses wouldn't realise. Mind you, it was pretty difficult _not _to notice a plane landing right outside your window, but whatever.

"Do you want to meet back here in an hour?" He suggested and they nodded in approval. Within seconds, Sonic had dashed off down the street and he was left standing with Amy, watching the space where their friend had been. Well, now he knew not to check straight ahead, maybe he'd go search the east side instead.

"I hope he hasn't been taken by Eggman," She sighed.

"Yeah, me too," They waved at each other and then were off, going off to look in their own directions. He started to wander down the street to the right, there wasn't much chance that he'd find Chip or Wentos here because there were no stores or anything, it was just houses. So he'd probably be better off heading into the middle of town...wherever that was. He was pretty sure it was straight ahead and then to the right, but which street would he take to get there? It looked like he'd just have to wing it.

So he turned right and continued down the street, Apotos wasn't quite as large as Spagonia was so it probably wouldn't take him as long to find the centre, and the wind wasn't getting any worse, which was great too. As he made his way along though, everything blue and yellow kept catching his eye and he'd stop and look around, hoping with all his might that it would be Wentos and his Chao puppet standing on the corner. He'd sigh when it in fact wasn't and actually just was someone's windowbox with blue and yellow flowers, or a store sign advertising a blue or yellow product.

Eventually he made it into the middle of town (he'd been so preoccupied with checking out everything in said two colours that he hadn't realised how quickly he'd gotten there) and stopped by that ice-cream vendor that liked to overreact. Sonic had told him that's where he'd named Chip, so it seemed like a pretty decent place to start. But man, the ice-cream looked so good, if he wasn't so busy then he would have gotten one for sure. It wasn't going anywhere though, so it would just have to wait.

He stepped up to the counter of the trolley, catching the man's attention. "Hey, have you seen a little flying burgundy-coloured guy around here? He should be with another guy who has a Chao puppet,"

"You mean him?" He replied, pointing behind Tails. He spun around, half-expecting it to be a false alarm. Yet it seemed luck was on his side today as standing there on the street corner was the Chao puppet with a Wentos attached. He stood frozen to the ground, he was just so surprised that he couldn't really get it through his head that they'd actually made progress (Chip could be two seconds away, for crying out loud!) and subsequently couldn't move either.

He stared at him, it was seriously unbelievable! This was probably a bad move on Tails' part though, as Wentos didn't really like to be looked at...or talked to, or even acknowledged as him and Sonic had learnt when they tried to talk to him a while ago in Spagonia. When he noticed he was being watched, his eyes widened and he suddenly sprinted off around a corner. Unfortunately Tails' mind didn't register this straight away, and by the time it did, it was about ten or so seconds later and Wentos was long gone. But he wasn't going to give up that easily, they hadn't flown three hours for that. So he quickly gave chase, following him down the street.

It all moved so quickly and if asked later on, Tails would have no idea how long he was running after him. But at the present moment, he was determined not to let him get away, this guy _was _the reason they were here to begin with. It was kind of funny though, Wentos probably had no idea that he was such an integral part in the situation, and even in saving the whole world... But he kept running, trying to find out where he was. The time he'd missed at the beginning was frustrating as he really didn't have a clue where he was going, but he hadn't lost him completely as every so often he'd see him around another corner or running down an adjacent street. It actually felt a bit like a dream, one of those confusing ones, you know?

He'd been down way more streets that he'd lost count but had seen him just a few blocks down the one he was on currently. Wentos had turned down the corner and he followed, gaining a fair bit of ground (he _was_ faster than him, after all). But just as _he _rounded the corner, Wentos suddenly he wasn't there anymore. It wasn't even a particularly short road, so where had he gone? He'd only been a few seconds away from him too, there was no way he could have run to the end that quickly.

He came to a stop, bending down for a second to try and catch his breath. Once better, he straightened back up and looked around. He was no where to be seen! What was going on? He'd been so close too! He peered down an alleyway branching off, but he wasn't there either. It was when he walked down the footpath that he noticed the blue and yellow in the corner of his eye. His heart lept in his chest and he looked up, seeing that it was in fact the Chao puppet. Wentos was standing on a fire exit on one of the buildings, _oh, he'd climbed up a ladder._

Luckily he hadn't seemed to notice Tails yet, so he jumped up into the air and took off in that general direction. Wentos did see him at this point (it was pretty hard to miss something flying right towards you), but it was too late now and he landed right in front of him, blocking the stairs down.

"I can fly,"

"I...I see that," Wentos answered, backing up against the railing. Man, he knew the guy was shy, but honestly, he was scared of _him? _No one had ever been scared of Tails before... "You're friends with that blue guy, right?"

"I am," He nodded. Actually, he'd never thought of the possibility of Wentos not remembering him and thinking he was _just _being chased, they had only met briefly in Spagonia, quite a while ago too. "But I only need to know if you have Chip with you,"

"Who's Chip?"

He felt that familiar panic start to rise in his chest, this wasn't sounding good at all. "The little burgundy flying guy, someone in Spagonia saw you talking to him,"

"Oh..." He said. "Yeah, I was. He's back there though, he told me he was looking for a temple or something,"

Tails wanted to punch of kick something, _anything, _so he did. He kicked the wall, hissing under his breath - Chip wasn't even freaking in Apotos! They'd come all this way for nothing! It was beyond frustrating, did Wentos not realise how much they'd been looking for Chip? He took a deep breath, it wasn't his fault, he didn't know what was happening and how desperately they needed him back. Now that he thought about it though, the waiter had said _'he was going to visit Apotos', _not _they_. He must have just been talking about Wentos.

_So luck wasn't on your side, was it, Tails?_

"Are...are you okay?" He asked, peering out from under the brim of his hat upon his annoyed reaction.

Eggman.

He'd thought about it before but had pretty much convinced himself that he hadn't taken him, but considering that he wasn't in Apotos and they'd searched all of Spagonia, it seemed like a feasible explanation and now he was completely sure of it. But where was Eggman keeping him in that case? They had like, the whole world to search! So they'd have to put their heads together and work out where to look. Maybe Sonic had an idea? He'd travelled a lot more than he had recently, so he'd have to ask him.

And now somehow, things had suddenly gotten even more confusing.


	6. Chapter 6

I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, I couldn't figure out what to write and how to write it. So even though I don't feel quite right about it, I decided to upload anyway because it's probably the best I can do, hahaha. Hopefully it makes sense and they're in character :) And I'm seriously cutting this fine, I have work in like, ten minutes, haha.

Oh, and thanks for all the reviews! I really appreciate them!

* * *

**6.**

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me," was Sonic's response to hearing what Wentos had said. He then preceded to walk over to the Tornado and bang his forehead against it in sheer frustration. Tails watched this in concern, he wanted to reassure him but nothing he could say would really make it better. _Nothing _actually could because the fact of the matter was that they still didn't know where Chip was (though he was definitely convinced that Eggman had him).

Amy decided to do the opposite, and instead of standing there gawking like an idiot, she walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, we'll fly back to Spagonia. I'm sure he's closer there than he is here," The silence that ensued was admittedly a little awkward and Tails fidgeted with his hands while he waited for Sonic to answer. If he didn't in the next thirty seconds he decided he was going to speak up himself, it couldn't go on much longer. Eventually though he did turn around, a grin plastered on his face.

"You're right, no point in hanging around here,"

The smile that spread across Tails' face at this definitely rivalled his brother's - _that's the spirit! _"I'll go start up the Tornado," He said, stepping over to the side of said plane and pushing himself onto his toes so he could reach the side and pull himself into the cockpit. He wasn't tall enough yet to be able to hop in without being on his toes of flailing and jumping around like an idiot, it was kind of annoying and he'd fallen from the edge on more than one occasion. One could argue that he might as well just fly up there, but he didn't really see the point of that when it was only a few metres off the ground. Flying was best reserved for when he seriously needed it...or just felt like it, not just for everyday tasks that anyone could do as it _was _relatively exhausting. "If we leave now we're bound to get there with plenty of time,"

"You sure about that, little buddy?" He asked, climbing up onto the wings himself. The concern and stress that had been evident only moments ago was now completely gone, but Tails was skeptical about whether he really was feeling alright. Typical Sonic though, willing to do anything to put everyone elses minds at ease even if he wasn't so crash hot himself, and while it probably wasn't the best thing, it certainly did work because he wasn't worried at all now.

"It only takes three hours, and sometimes even less like this morning, so we'll be fine, I promise!"

"Alright," He chuckled lightly at his little brother's enthusiasm. "If you say so,"

He waited for Amy to climb into the backseat before starting the engine up. It rumbled back to life quickly after only being used a few hours ago and he checked around him to see that the coast was clear to take off. It was when he glanced behind (why it brought upon this, he didn't know. It didn't relate to what he was thinking at all) that he suddenly remembered the revelation he'd had when he'd talked to Wentos. It seemed he'd been so concerned and distracted with Sonic that he'd totally forgotten to bring it up.

It hit him just as hard as it had the first time and every other time he'd thought about Eggman and he found himself just staring forward, a million questions suddenly flooding his mind. Why? Where was his base? Was it near Spagonia? Should he ask Sonic if he knew? What if Chip was hurt? Maybe he'd been a spy for Eggman all along? The last one was pretty far-out and he felt kind of silly for thinking it, but at this point he was just jumping to every single ridiculous conclusion.

"Hey Tails, is everything okay? We're not moving..." Amy interrupted his rather de-railed train of thought and for that he was grateful, it wasn't the best thing to be thinking about because the more he did, the angrier he got. Well, not _angry _exactly, but he didn't think the whole situation was very fair and it was seriously stressing him out.

"Eggman,"

"Well, yeah, but what about him?"

"I think he took Chip," He mumbled, placing his head on the control panel. It was as if saying it out loud had suddenly made it oh so real and oh so threatening, and now he had no idea what to do. "It would make sense, wouldn't it? Wentos said he'd been talking with him a few days ago, not recently and we've looked everywhere in Spagonia. Plus Eggman knows that Sonic and Chip are friends, so it would probably be a good way to lure him in or whatever, but what do we do in that case?" It all came out in a jumbled mess, as if all the worry and everything else he'd been feeling in the past few days was coming to a head. But behaving like that wouldn't do any good, he had to be mature about it.

"Don't stress it," He felt a hand on his head and looked up to try and locate it and found Sonic had slid in next to him and was ruffling the fur on his head. "I'm sure we'll figure it out, Chip couldn't have just disappeared,"

"I'm sorry," He replied. "I shouldn't even be complaining, it's not happening to me," Sonic looked a little hurt at his statement and this made him feel even worse, that wasn't the first time recently he'd not thought about what he was saying. Sonic quickly hid the upset though and replaced it with another smile, but he'd already seen it. It wasn't really a happy smile though, it seemed more of a _lets-accept-things-and-just-get-on-with-them _one, if that could even exist. "Oh God, I didn't mean it like that!"

"It's totally okay, the whole situation is pretty scary," He chuckled but Tails noted this as odd as Sonic didn't easily admit to something being scary. "But I think you have a point about Eggman, and since I have no idea where he could be, Spagonia seems like a good place to start,"

He nodded, starting to brighten back up. "Yeah, and it's more central to everything too,"

"So what are we waiting for?" He went to stand up and reclaim his spot on the wing, but moved too quickly (because that was _so _unlike him) and bumped his head on the part that kind of jutted out over the controls. He just rolled his eyes, placed a hand where he'd hit it and jumped up onto his usual spot with way too much ease for someone who had just hurt themselves. "We should probably take off,"

* * *

Things had been going rather swimmingly so far, they hadn't hit any bad weather so their flight had been smooth and everyone had been relatively happy. Sonic had been chewing his ears off at the start, telling him all about the places he'd been and those temples he had to find. They'd found four thus far, but there were seven, so they still had quite a while to go. He didn't think the one in Spagonia would be very far though, as he said he'd overhead someone saying it was about half an hour out of the city. He'd suddenly shut up a little while ago but Tails hadn't paid any attention to that, he figured he'd just run out of things to say, though that wasn't very Sonic-like.

"Tails?"

Or maybe he hadn't.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could possibly land the plane, it's getting kind of late,"

He looked right out in front of him and noticed that he was indeed right, time _was _ticking on and the sun looked quite low. He'd been so caught up in stressing about Eggman and trying to think of everything he'd said that may have hinted to a secret base or something, and on top of that, trying to pilot a plane and listen to his brother's previous conversation, that he hadn't really noticed how late in the afternoon it was getting. But they still had a good forty or fifty minutes until the sun set completely, there was nothing to worry about. "We're going to be there in like, twenty minutes,"

He didn't answer and he took it as if he understood and he'd made a good point. Still - and he glanced down at the bandages at this point - there wasn't any reason they couldn't go a bit faster, right? He hit the accelerator, jerking the plane forward in a manner that wasn't very smooth (nor safe) and prompted an _'hey!' _from Amy behind him. They flew on in silence for what felt like a few more minutes until Tails noticed that sunset was coming sooner than he'd predicted. He pushed down the nervous knot that had arisen in his stomach, they'd be fine, they still had ages.

"Tails, buddy," Sonic's voice was more urgent this time. "I really need you to land soon,"

"We've got fifteen minutes to go," It was seriously getting dark at a rapid rate though, but surely there was half an hour of sun left? Nightfall didn't just come suddenly like that, there was always a build-up, even in the parts of the world he wasn't so familiar with. So why was it happening so quickly here? He was sure they'd have enough time to get there, and he still was sure, it was _only _fifteen minutes after all. They were cutting it pretty close mind you, and a little voice in the back of his mind was telling him he should probably stop now, he just _really _wanted to get to Spagonia.

"Tails! Land the plane!"

Okay, okay, fine.

_We could have gotten there though._

He steered down, probably better he did this now anyway and Spagonia wasn't too far. They could even walk there, it might just take a bit longer. He felt something start to wobble and his first thought was that they'd run out of fuel or something and they were crashing (he'd done that on more than one occasion and it wasn't too lovely. That one time in Station Square still made him shudder), but when there was no smoke or anything, he realised that the wings were shaking. And who was up there again?

It was here that he understood the actual seriousness of the situation. Crap, in that case he needed to get to he ground in a few minutes and that was near impossible. Even if he did manage to, the landing would definitely not be very smooth and could damage the plane. But who cared about that? It was better than staying in the air and putting them in danger, so he pushed even harder on the pedals...they were almost there! Just in time too, the shaking was getting worse and he could see Sonic's fingers gripping the side tightly - he must have been in so much pain!

"Brace youself!" He shouted, tilting the steering wheel downwards. Two more seconds...

The plane hit the ground with an unpleasant thud which was then joined by a howl from the wing. It made him jump and slam on the brakes, bringing them to a sudden stop. There was no time to recover from this though, and Tails leapt out the plane, Amy following. Sonic...well sorta Sonic was still on the wing and he hadn't seemed to have noticed them yet.

They'd been so busy as of late that Tails had almost completely forgotten the fear he'd felt four nights ago, and he didn't remember Sonic being that menacing either. Unfortunately all this came flooding back and he felt the nerves start to rise inside again. _There is no time to be scared! Find somewhere high to hide as quickly as possible! _Moving to someplace high always seemed like a good idea to Tails, especially when others _couldn't _fly. Cautiously, as if moving his head would suddenly provoke the werehog, he turned to look for said place. There were a few houses but they seemed pretty easy for _anyone _to climb, and he didn't think the owners would appreciate smashed windows. He continued looking and found a tree instead, the branches were high and they could probably camouflage themselves in the leaves. It would have to do.

"Amy..." He stammered, trying to hide how nervous he really was. "We're going to run to that tree over there and I'm going to fly us up, okay?" She nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on Sonic. He couldn't tell whether she was frightened, disbelieving or just sort of entranced, she hadn't seen him like this before, after all. "Ready?"

He broke into a sprint, but the rapid movement seemed to catch the attention of Sonic and he jumped off the plane and followed them, growling as he did so. When he realised this, Tails mentally freaked out and took off into the air way sooner than he was planning to. Amy managed to grab his ankles before he got too high up and with as much might as possible, he flew them up to the first branch of the tree. They sat still for a moment, both trying to catch their breath and adjust to the fact that their friend who wasn't really himself was at the bottom of the tree, waiting for them to come down.

Peering cautiously over the branch, Tails almost had a heart attack when he saw that Sonic was no longer there. He squinted out further, looking back towards the Tornado and the neighbourhood where they'd landed. Where was he? It _was _good he wasn't trying to get them anymore, but he didn't really want to lose him either, that could be even more dangerous. Swallowing hard, he straightened back up and closed his eyes, allowing himself a breather. Everything would be alright in the morning and they could continue finding Chip then, no big deal.

When he re-opened them, he noticed a flash of dark blue just below. He looked back down, expecting to see Sonic had returned or something. But instead he was greeted with him much, _much _closer. In fact, he was making his way up the tree and was about three quarters of the way up. Oh, that's why he hadn't seen him, he hadn't looked on the trunk. He also hadn't taken into consideration that the werehog-him was quite an adept climber, no, he'd forgotten _all _about that.

He only had about ten seconds to work out something to do too, and while he probably could have come up with a decent plan if he'd had longer, climbing higher up seemed like a pretty good option. He grabbed onto a smaller branch above his head and hitched himself up. Amy followed and faster than what was safe, they climbed right up to the top of the tree. He could hear the leaves rustling behind him the whole time and he hoped for dear life that he didn't slip.

They reached the top easily enough, but that still wasn't enough. Sonic was going to find them if they stayed here, all it had done was give them a little more time. Maybe if they flew to one of the roofs of a house before Sonic had a chance to see them then they'd be safe? They could hide behind a chimney or something...that wasn't a bad idea actually. Better than anything else he'd come up with so far, anyway!

"That house over there," He whispered, pointing to the closest one. Amy nodded and latched onto his ankles, at least she understood how urgent they had to be. He started to spin his namesakes around and launched them into the air, heading in the direction of the house. He was pretty damn exhausted by this point and just felt like collapsing or simply landing, but they _had_ to get there so he pushed himself harder. The house wasn't too far though luckily, and soon they were huddled behind the chimney, scared out of their wits.

"I always believed you," She muttered, poking her head around the bricks to try and locate where Sonic was. From what she observed, he appeared to still be in the tree somewhere. "But to see it personally, it's a different thing,"


	7. Chapter 7

I've been tossing and turning over this chapter, but this morning I thought "Alright, just gonna do it", and here we are! Originally it was going to be the second last chapter too, but the rest of it seemed to move too quickly so I separated it into two.

Also, I'm such a sucker for Amy/Tails friendships, srsly. But hopefully this is okay, happy reading!

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**7.**

* * *

For the first hour or so, Tails had been absolutely terrified. He'd sat behind the chimney with his legs pulled up to his chest, not daring to move in even the slightest way. Amy had been a little braver and every so often she'd peek around to see what was going on. She didn't say anything though, for fear of attracting attention (which was kind of silly because if the Werehog didn't see her move, then he probably wouldn't hear her talk, but neither of them wanted to take that chance). But as time wore on, it started to become apparent that Sonic wasn't even there anymore, most likely running off somewhere else and didn't really care about them. Why would he anyway? He wasn't purposely trying to attack anyone, he was...you know.

As he became surer he was gone, the fear started to subside and was replaced with, well, nothing. This would have been a good thing, except now it was really dull. So he sat there, trying to ignore it, but it was getting worse. The dullness and nothingness was building up until he just couldn't stand it anymore, and he leant over to Amy and whispered, "I'm bored,"

"Yeah, me too," Amy replied. She must have realised that he'd gone too - that was a relief, he wouldn't have to explain it to her.

But what could they do now? He didn't particularly want to stay there all night, the time would drag on forever and it wasn't the most comfortable place to be seated. Admittedly, he _was _tired and sleeping seemed like a good option, but the fear was still prevalent enough that there was no way he'd be able to do it. It's not that he had an issue with sleeping outside, he didn't care about that at all, just...not here. Maybe he'd have better luck in the city? Even though they wouldn't have a place to stay, they'd find something and Sonic probably wouldn't be there.

"Do you want to go to Spagonia?" He continued. "It'll only be a fourty minute walk or whatever,"

"Sure, there's nothing else to do,"

He stood up but kept still for a moment, almost as if he was testing and making sure Sonic was indeed not there. When there was no response and he was convinced they were by themselves, he walked across the roof and balanced rather precariously on the edge. Actually, it wasn't precariously as such, because the gap between the two houses wasn't even a metre in length. Overcrowded, built-up areas weren't his favourite thing, but in this situation they were definitely handy.

"What are you up to, Tails?"

"Walking along the rooves. The houses go all the way into the city and it's probably a lot safer than being on the ground, plus," He added with a grin. "They all have chimneys,"

Wait...that had sounded a lot better in his head.

Amy laughed quietly and he felt his cheeks heat up, it _had _been a pretty ridiculous idea. Why would they walk across the rooves? It was just more complicated and they'd have to watch out for all the small gaps, they'd be easy to slip down and that would _hurt. _It would take longer too, and they were bound to be noticed by people on the street. The homeowners definitely wouldn't appreciate them stomping around and probably knocking off the tiles either. It just sounded more fun, is all.

"Let's do it," And with her approval, suddenly all the worries flew out the window. If Amy agreed, then it couldn't be a bad idea. "We'll just have to be careful,"

Then just like that, they set off. No one stared or yelled and before he knew it, they were halfway there.

* * *

"What are we going to do in Spagonia anyway?" Amy asked. Good question, he hadn't really thought that far. He was just holding out hope that everything would sort itself out by the time they got there and they'd find somewhere comfortable to sleep. It was unlike him to leave everything to chance like that, but he was really tired and in all honesty didn't particularly care anymore.

"Sleep," He replied, yawning for effect. If he wasn't too busy being exhausted then he would have found that kind of funny - he wasn't able to yawn on cue but that had been a very appropriate moment. "I'm not being very much fun, sorry,"

She stopped mid-stride and then sat down, crossing her legs over and from what he could see in the dark, was giving him a look of some amusement (probably at his yawn). "Why don't we stop here then? I don't think we're going to find anywhere better in the city, unless you have a whole lot of money for a hotel or something,"

He stayed standing momentarily, thinking about what they _could _do. Amy made a good point, he didn't have much money on him at all and they'd be pretty hard pressed to find somewhere to stay at this time of night. He didn't know where he'd been planning on going when they got there in the first place, but the city just seemed like it was safer area. Mind you, they were only about ten minutes from the heart of it now anyway, so here was actually fine. It was a bit more comfortable than the other house had been too, so that was another positive.

"Do you think he'll be able to spot us?" He still felt bad about saying that sort of thing, Sonic was their best friend! But Amy knew what he meant - well, she ought to anyway, it would be kind of odd if she didn't. It wasn't as if Sonic was himself now, so they couldn't exactly blame him.

"I don't think so,"

Tails lay back, placing his hands behind his head and staring up at the sky. It was so vast and everything else seemed so tiny in comparison. Even he felt small, but that was okay because for some reason it made him hopeful too - that if something as big as the sky could exist, then surely they'd be able to work out their issues. Soon after that thought though, he started to go over everything scientific and mathematical he knew about the sky, different types of clouds, what stars were exactly and whatnot. He generally thought about things in that way, but you know, it was nice to be reflective once in a while.

"I'm so worried about him," Amy spoke up, breaking him out of his analysis of those particular stars over there. He hadn't seen that constellation before, it was kind of neat.

"Yeah," When he really considered it, Tails felt out of his depth. They fought Eggman all the time, but not when he had kidnapped someone like this and had absolutely no leads to where he was. Especially when said someone was so darn important to the situation and progress of it. They would find him eventually (hopefully), but did they really have that time to spare when the planet was splitting apart as they spoke? Not really, but they had no choice. Chip was their friend as well, they couldn't just leave him like that.

Funny thing actually, on their way back to Spagonia, Sonic had mentioned he didn't want Chip to know what had happened. Tails didn't understand why, and when questioned Sonic had said something along the lines of _'I don't want him to stress'_. Chip _was _prone to freaking out, but it seemed a little strange to keep him in the dark. If it had been up to him, it would have been the first thing he'd said, but Sonic more than likely knew what he was doing though, so he'd promised not to say a word...no matter how much he wanted to.

"Like, what if we never find Chip and the Dark Gaia takes over Sonic completely? I know it's a long shot, but I can't help but worry about those sorts of things," She continued. "There are just so many questions and places to search, I wonder if we're even looking in the right place,"

Well, it seems they understood each other better than he thought. "What if Chip is actually working with Eggman?" It sounded stupid, but he still thought about it sometimes.

"Or maybe Eggman isn't even near Spagonia and he's on the other side of the world?"

"Then we'll need to fly there and the same thing that happened tonight could happen again,"

"We might be over the ocean and have no where to land, "

"And by that time Eggman could have taken over there and we might be too late,"

"But we'd never let him get away with it,"

"Of course not," They fell into silence after that, both of them taking in everything the other had just said. He'd never thought about the Dark Gaia fully changing Sonic, but now she'd brought it up, it was something that did sound sort of possible. Or maybe he was just jumping to conclusions again. And while he had even more to be scared about now, he was even more determined to find Chip and fix everything. He didn't know where all this determination was coming from because he thought he'd been pretty determined in the first place, but he wasn't going to argue with it. If it got things done, then it was good. Oh, and he didn't really believe Chip was working with Eggman, it was just a thought.


	8. Chapter 8

Woooo, last chapter! Well, there's still an epilogue to come, but you know what I mean. I so so hope this is alright, I'm kinda worried. But I say that every chapter, hahaha. Talk about being anti-climatic, Jesus Christ. And before I forget, thank you for all the wonderful reviews, guys!

Enjoy!

* * *

**8.**

* * *

"Tails!" He dismissed the voice at first because he wasn't even half awake and had no intention of being fully. "Tails! Amy!" It was more insistent this time, louder too, and he was conscious enough to know that he would have a hard time getting back to sleep with that constantly blaring. So as much as he didn't want to, he opened his eyes, was subsequently surprised by the bright sun and then sat up too fast and made himself dizzy. It took him a minute to recover but once he did, Tails looked around to locate who had been calling him.

Well, what do you know, it was Sonic. _So much for him not being able to see us up here_. He waved in response and then nudged Amy (who was taking an awfully long time) awake.

"What?"

"Sonic!" He replied, and upon hearing his name, she was up. They wasted no time in making their way off the roof and they both scrambled off as fast as possible, at this point neither of them cared if the people _inside _the house spotted them. Amy had a tough time though, as jumping down from high places wasn't her forte (and he was quite good at it) and she stumbled when she got to the ground, much to her embarrassment. He probably should have offered to fly her down, but they'd been in such a mad dash that he hadn't thought about it.

"Looks like I'm pretty popular," He laughed at their rush to see him. "So where are we looking today, buddy?"

Now this question he was prepared for! He'd been thinking about it last night and he'd figured that if Eggman did have Chip, then he'd almost definitely want to use him as a lure for Sonic. He knew they were friends and that was something that was easily exploitable. Though he doubted Eggman knew _just _how vital Chip really was, but if he did, God help them all. He'd jump at the chance to render Sonic pretty much (and it pained him to say it) useless, even if it was only half the time.

But back to the original plan, if he was trying to lure Sonic in, then he probably would have set up a base close by. He was totally aware they were in Spagonia, so he couldn't be too far out of the city then. They'd just have to search all the big buildings and anything that looked even remotely suspicious. Plus, it probably wouldn't hurt to keep asking around for Chip _and _Eggman.

"Spagonia again," He laughed. "But that's kind of a given, so I think we should look around the outside of the city moreso than the rest because Eggman probably isn't hiding out in the middle with everyone,"

"Good idea," He replied, grinning at his brother. "We're almost there anyway, it shouldn't take too long,"

It was silly to think because it was his plan in the first place, but coming back to Spagonia felt like a bit of a backtrack. They'd just searched the city so thoroughly last time that he wasn't sure what they'd find now, even if he was convinced that Eggman had Chip. Spagonia _would _be the most probably location of the Doctor's base, but they hadn't seen anything like that last time they were here. Maybe it's because they weren't really looking out for a huge evil building, but even still. He could be anywhere in the world, and that thought was more than a little overwhelming. He didn't want this to keep happening to Sonic though, it was _scary _and not fair at all.

There was no point in being down about it, they had to start somewhere, didn't they? And like he'd said before, Eggman knew they were in this city so if he wanted a confrontation he knew where to get one. So with that in mind, they'd continue to search and hope that they found Chip as quickly as possible.

He pushed the concerns away and tried to find something else to occupy his thoughts, so as they walked down the street, he looked around. It was nice to be back somewhere he recognised, even though Spagonia wasn't his home, he'd spent long enough exploring it recently that he sort of knew his way around. That was comforting, albeit in a strange sort of way.

A store caught his eye at this point - it was that paint place, the one he'd bought the stuff for the Tornado at. Speaking of, he probably should go back and get that sometime soon. The people living on that street wouldn't appreciate a big red plane sitting in the middle of the road, and he wasn't sure he liked the idea of not knowing exactly where it was and who could see it. It made him uneasy, he didn't want anyone to scratch it and make it look any worse because then he'd actually have to paint it. He had been planning to, but because of the rush in the past few days, he couldn't really be bothered anymore.

He continued to survey the area and eventually his attention was directed to Sonic and how tired he looked. Not _as _tired as before (thank goodness), but still, it wasn't too great. There was something slightly off about his expression too, and while he didn't want to say he looked defeated because Sonic wasn't like that, it was something along those lines. Run down, maybe. Was it really any wonder though? Being totally different at night would be hard, but especially so for Sonic because he was such a good person usually and now he might seriously be hurting people. Oh yeah, and not to mention the enormous task of trying to put the planet back together on top of that.

He looked like he was desperately trying to hide it too, for whatever reasons. He guessed a combination of reassuring himself and making them feel better. He probably didn't want the two of them to see how badly he was taking it either, because in all honesty, if Sonic was worried about something, then everyone would be. That was a terrible win-lose situation, wasn't it? It was great to be brave, but then there was that pressure of _always _being like that. Everyone kind of relied on him for direction in a situation like this one. But Tails knew how much he hated what was happening anyway...well, he could tell, because no matter how stressful _he _thought the situation was, it was tenfold for Sonic.

"How are you?" Amy's voice surprised him, but he agreed with the question. It was like they'd been thinking along the same lines.

"I'm not too bad," Sonic replied. "How about you?

She didn't answer immediately and instead appeared to be taking time to formulate her response. Tails took note of this so he could use it as a point if his brother was ever complaining about her. She seemed to _now_ know when it was and wasn't appropriate to squeal and hug him. If there _was_ something good that came out of this whole situation, it was that it had been a pretty good learning curve.

"No," She finally said, her voice lower now. "You're not,"

Ha, how was he going to come back from that? It was his turn to take ages this time though, and when he did answer, it didn't have quite as much impact as she had. "I'm fine,"

"Be honest," At this, he dropped his eyes to the ground and watched his feet. For a _very _brief moment the facade he'd had up was pulled down and they could see exactly how hard it was. Not the task, but just the fact that he wasn't himself half the time and he couldn't even remember _what _he was. That they, his best friends had to run away from him because he might lash out at them - like he already had. That was the worst part, he would _never _intentionally hurt someone, let alone people he genuinely cared about. Tails felt terrible, no one deserved that (but he'd been right when he was thinking about it before).

He looked at her, his guard back up and seemingly fine again. "Thank you, Ames," And that was the end of that. They walked on in silence for a few more minutes until Tails bumped into him - it wasn't often he was faster than his brother and today was no exception because he had actually stopped.

He was about to say something along the lines of _'hey!'_ when he heard another voice calling out to Sonic, a very familiar one at that. But he couldn't quite put his finger on who it belonged to, and while went through every person he'd known in the last few years, he looked up and noticed that Sonic was staring out in front of him. He followed his gaze and...no way. This couldn't be for real.

Turns out Chip hadn't been taken by Eggman and he was standing about ten metres ahead of them, looking just as startled as they did. "You guys!" He shouted, flailing his arms around. "Where have you been?"

"Where have _we _been?" It was said a lot harsher than Tails ever thought he'd hear from Sonic, and his face matched - sort of frustrated and angry at the same time. It was only there for half a second though before he replaced it with something happier instead. He was obviously annoyed by the question, but he apparently didn't want Chip to see that...nor anyone else for that matter. "We've been looking for you! Have you been here the whole time?" His tone was softer this time and showed no indication of what it had been previously. How Sonic managed to keep his cool like that was a mystery though, if it had been happening to him he would have blurted it out straight away.

"Yeah," He replied, shrugging sheepishly. "I'm sorry! I went to get something to eat and then this guy told me where the temple was, so I went to look for it and sort of lost track of time,"

_For four days?_

"You should have come back, we could have looked for it together, like we've been doing the whole time,"

"I know, I'm sorry!" He said. "I was just searching around and every so often I'd see you guys running through the city and I figured everything was okay, so I just didn't think to,"

"Right,"

He took a deep breath and continued, "Then I came back to where Tails parked his plane a few hours ago because I finally found it and you were gone! I've been really worried, I thought you'd stay in Spagonia,"

_Believe it or not, we have things to do too. We won't just idle around waiting for you to come back. _It sounded harsh and he didn't really mean it, but right now, he was seriously peeved.

"Did you not think that we were worried too? We flew to Apotos to try and find out where you were!" Amy chimed in, placing her hands on her hips. No one said anything at this statement, as they were all trying to process exactly what had happened, until she spoke up again. "But it's okay, because we've found each other now,"

Tails couldn't believe it. It had all been one big misunderstanding. Actually scratch that, it had been a series of misunderstandings, one after the other. Not just on their part either, Chip hadn't realised _why _they were running around. And as a result they'd travelled hundreds of miles, been put under an unhealthy amount of stress and ultimately wound up back where they'd started. It hadn't even had anything to do with Eggman! Chip had just gone running off and wherever they looked, he had been somewhere else. _But _as Amy had said, it was fine now.

And with that, the annoyance and frustration he was feeling at wasting all that time gave way to relief. Relief that they no longer had to search for Chip and that Sonic would go back to being himself, even if he still turned into the Werehog thing at night. That everything they'd done in the last few days was over and they could go back to what was really important - putting the planet together. It was done. Finished. Actually, you know what it felt like? Like that tonne of bricks that had hit Tails when he'd first figured out the whole Chip thing had been lifted. And that, to him, was honestly the best thing.


	9. Epilogue

Talk about a let-down of a previous chapter, hahahaha! That was kind of the point of it though, that with a misunderstanding, things can just be thrown so out of whack. I've never been very good at endings though, so I'm still getting there :)

Right, so if you haven't played Unleashed this may have some spoilers in it because it's pretty much a re-write of a cutscene towards the end of the game. So if you don't want the game spoiled, you might not want to read it. It kinda wraps the story up though, haha. Thanks for the reviews too, you guys are all so lovely and I really appreciate them.

* * *

**Epilogue.**

* * *

Sonic stared out at the setting sun, feeling more ecstatic than he ever had in quite possibly his entire life. It was the best feeling knowing that he wasn't about to transform into some feral monster in a few minutes, and while his look would still, he'd still be himself...sort of. You know what he meant. No matter how many nights had passed since the whole incident had ended, the elation hadn't wavered. Not even Chip standing beside him looking rather distressed could bring him down, he was just _that _happy.

Speaking of Chip though, he'd been way too quiet since they had left the sixth temple they'd found. Seriously, he hadn't uttered a single word since something along the lines of _'I remember it now, all of it'_, and talk about leaving him hanging! Could he not have picked something a little less...confusing to say before deciding to take a vow of silence or whatever? It's not that it really mattered, but what did that even mean? Had he gotten all his memories back or figured out what Eggman was up to? It would be nice if it was one of those two things, especially the latter because it would make their job a whole lot easier. He supposed he should just wait for him, Chip would talk in his own time, patience just wasn't his best trait.

He was still pretty annoyed at Chip by the way. It wasn't like him to be like that and he didn't enjoy feeling it, so he tried to hide it as best as possible. But he didn't know how good a job he was doing of it. Occasionally something would slip out and Chip would give him a look of _what's-going-on. _Usually it was pretty vague or just a quip about losing time, so he hadn't given anything away luckily. It was not the main thing though and it's not like he was annoyed constantly. Most of the time he was just happy to be around his friend and you know, that _everything _was alright again. It was only around sunset that it really surfaced, for obvious reasons. He couldn't help but be a little on edge, what if it happened again? It hadn't, but the thought was still there. It was hard not to blurt it _all_ out to Chip too and he'd definitely had to bite his tongue a few times.

"My real name is Light Gaia,"

What?

"I draw power from the day and light, and guide the planet to it's rebirth,"

No...really? Chip had to be joking.

"My job was to protect the..." And here Sonic tuned out, trying to process just exactly what had been said. He didn't seem to be joking, in fact, he seemed dead serious. Even though their 'adventure' recently had been pretty crazy, this was downright unbelievable. Seriously, he would _not _have predicted this to be the case, never in a million years. It was like something out of a storybook or a movie or something, because honestly, what were the chances of this happening? Pretty damn slim if you asked him.

And Tails had been right the whole time. Not that he'd doubted him, but he'd been totally, one-hundred percent correct - Light Gaia _did _counteract Dark Gaia and now they had proof. They had a concrete reason for the whole situation too because until now, they'd just assumed Chip had some of it in him and hadn't really looked further than that. But no, apparently he _was _Light Gaia. The actual embodiment of it and Sonic couldn't quite wrap his head around that fact.

"...all because this isn't the proper time of awakening,"

Okay, he should probably start answering or something now. He hadn't been listening to what he'd been saying, but Chip was looking at him kind of expectantly so it would be rude not to respond. But he was still so surprised that all he could really think to say was, "Time of awakening?"

Smooth.

He started up again, going on about fighting Dark Gaia for millions of years and sleeping. He didn't hear most of what was said as he was still struggling to grasp the situation and couldn't really focus. He heard bits and pieces though, _'rises to destroy the world...put it all back together...over and over...' _but didn't really understand what it all meant.

"So you've been asleep all this time?" Geez, he certainly hoped that's what Chip had been talking about and he hadn't just replied with something that made no sense. "For millions of years?"

"Yes, for ages and ages,"

Phew, turns out it was. But he didn't have time to relish in the small victory of not sounding like an idiot because his hands had started to shake and this drew his attention to the horizon. The sun was almost set and he'd been so preoccupied that he hadn't even noticed. Oh well, it's not like he had anything to worry about now anyway (besides the pain, but he could deal with that) so it was all good. He held his arms firmly by his side to try and keep them still and took a deep breath, attempting to focus on something other than the stinging in his limbs that was getting considerably more painful as time went on.

Eventually it subsided and he breathed out, no matter how many times that happened it wasn't any better. Still, he didn't have anything to complain about because at least he wasn't turning into a monster. "I bet it's thanks to you," It had just slipped out, honestly! But he hadn't exactly said given away everything though, just made another vague comment, so that sort of evened it out. He hoped so, at least. "Even at night when I'm like this, I'm still myself. You must have been protecting me this whole time," Okay, _now _he was just poking around for answers.

"I haven't done anything, Sonic. You're the reason, you're too strong to lose yourself,"

Well, Sonic would be lying if he didn't admit that was a little sad, but Chip had _no _idea.


End file.
